At The Existentialist Cafe

Series

Duration

Genre

Station

Radio 4

Duration

15 Minutes

Episodes

Episode

FirstBroadcast

Repeated

Comments

01

20160411

20160412 (R4)

Three French philosophers discover phenomenology and make philosophy from apricot cocktail

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

02

20160412

20160413 (R4)

Phenomenology is born when Edmund Husserl urges engagement with a world of real experience

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

03

20160413

20160414 (R4)

The philosophical world is enchanted by Martin Heidegger, but it does not last long.

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

The philosophical world is enchanted by Martin Heidegger, but it does not last long.

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

04

20160414

20160415 (R4)

Sartre and de Beauvoir's extraordinary 50-year relationship was existentialism in practice

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

05

20160415

20160416 (R4)

Why existentialism matters more than ever in the 21st century.

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

05

20160415

20160416 (R4)

Why existentialism matters more than ever in the 21st century.

Episodes

Episode

FirstBroadcast

Repeated

Comments

01

20160411

20160412 (R4)

Three French philosophers discover phenomenology and make philosophy from apricot cocktail

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

02

20160412

20160413 (R4)

Phenomenology is born when Edmund Husserl urges engagement with a world of real experience

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

03

20160413

20160414 (R4)

The philosophical world is enchanted by Martin Heidegger, but it does not last long.

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

The philosophical world is enchanted by Martin Heidegger, but it does not last long.

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

04

20160414

20160415 (R4)

Sartre and de Beauvoir's extraordinary 50-year relationship was existentialism in practice

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Read by Sasha Behar

Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

05

20160415

20160416 (R4)

Why existentialism matters more than ever in the 21st century.

Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"

It was this simple phrase that ignited a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being and political activism. This movement swept through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.

Featuring philosophers, playwrights, anthropologists, convicts and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists' story - from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights.

Interweaving biography and philosophy, this is an epic account of passionate encounters - fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnership. It's also an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today - at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.